Typical modern data centers contain a plurality of heterogeneous types of data storage equipment. Frequently, an array of data storage devices configured along with various printed circuit boards are packaged within an enclosure. The enclosure is a data storage array such as a box commonly referred to as Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD) or a data storage server. Frequently JBOD boxes or data storage servers contain printed circuit boards configured as port expanders and a plurality of data storage devices. Port expanders are switches configured to switch several sets of communication signals from one data storage device to another. Data storage servers typically include one or more computer engines performing server functionality where JBOD enclosures typically communicate with a server that is external to the JBOD enclosure. Thus both data storage servers and JBOD enclosures each typically use a plurality of cables connecting data storage devices or data storage subassemblies to other printed circuit boards contained within an enclosure.
The most common data storage device communication signals used in the data center today are low voltage differential signals configured in a plurality of pairs. Standard data storage device communication interfaces include serial attached SCSI (SAS) and serial attached ATA (SATA).
Both SAS and SATA communication interfaces contain two pairs of electrical conductors. One pair of these conductors is configured to transmit commands and data to a data storage device and the second pair of conductors are configured to receive data or other information from that same data storage device. Each set of two pairs of electrical conductors is commonly referred to as a data communication lane. The electrical conductors for each lane are commonly referred to as transmit X (TrX), transmit Y (TrY), read X (RdX), and read Y (RdY).
Frequently, data storage arrays have several circuit boards and a plurality of cables interconnecting those circuit boards. Typically, there are circuit boards that connect to devices external and remote to the data storage array, there are circuit boards containing port expander circuits, and there are circuit boards configured to fan out (spread out) data storage device communication interconnections to a plurality of individual data storage devices.
Thus, data storage arrays contain many circuit boards with a plurality of cables connecting the different circuit boards electrically to each other and to a plurality of data storage devices. This means that the typical data storage array contains many connectors to which the cables connect. Moreover, the typical data storage can contain remote components connected via the many connectors. Often times, many of these connectors are difficult to locate and the connections between components, particularly remote components, can be difficult to verify. Maintaining these various connections in the absence of human error is often quite challenging.